When I rushed at the private school I transferred from, Kappa Delta didn't have a house, but the other 2 did. KD held their rush at the SAE house. They did a great job, the house looked on the inside like it was a sorority house. SAE had taken down pictures and tons of other stuff so that KD could hang theirs. I don't remember being impressed or put off by the fact it was held at one of the fraternity houses. I just took it as something that was because it had to be.

To all of you who have said DZ has no other option are forgetting one thing...the AZD/TKE house. To those of you who don't know the history of this house, no one is currently living there and the house is right next to Kappa Alpha Theta near sorority row. Why not use this house...it is much more fair in my opinion.

As a side note DZ didn't have a problem recruiting last year without a house...they were able to bring in about 150 girls...

DZ recruited last year during informal rush. It is completely different than competing with 16 different sororities during formal recruitment.

I am sure that panhellenic explored all the options and made a fair, unbiased decision. I don't think that a panhellenic that is comprised of girls from other chapters would have let DZ take the ATO house if they felt it would give them an "edge". There might be a reason why they can't use the AZD/TKE house.

It's very common at many schools for groups without houses to use those of other groups. As far as them not using an empty house, could it be that the empty house needs dusted/has no utilities/is a general mess?

This is exactly why Panhel and IFC discourage using "house" to refer to a GLO (what house are you in?) - the emphasis should be on the people in the house, not the physical structure. I loved our little house, mostly because of the memories made there, but believe me, it had NOTHING to do with my decision of where to pledge. The fact that people would actually pick a sorority or fraternity based on that makes me somewhat ill.

It's very common at many schools for groups without houses to use those of other groups
See now I'm glad I found that out! I thought it was unusual!


There might be a reason why they can't use the AZD/TKE house.

Indeed. It has to do with the house can not be rented while it is under contract. For DZ to use the house, they would have to rent it out, which they can not do currently.

However, most of the greek world knows DZ is most likely tearing down the AZD/TKE house to build the new 3 million dollar (yes that's right) DZ house. They feel they can't renovate it adequately or whatnot. Yes, I wish my chapter could get those funds. But who doesn't? I wish my house could be renovated a but fortunately it is being redone (the bathroom's in the back are well old to say the least).

As a side note to all the chatter on if using a fraternity facility is allowable, NPC also states that on campuses where chapters are housed, all NPC sororities must be provided with EQUITABLE housing to each other. DZ, at the current time, has none. Using this fraternity's housing unit gives them NO advantage. The house is well known, yes, so why would anyone question if DZ was living there now? Greek Life and NPC will make clear to the women going through the process that DZ is USING the ATO house...trust me.

hopeful, this is meant in the nicest way possible, but worry about your own recruitment. You have an awesome house, the biggest on campus as you said, and fretting over DZs use of a fraternity house is honestly the least of the worries. Focus those energies on making your own recruitment fabulous! :)

At my school, quite a few of the fraternities either don't have houses or their houses are too far off-campus to hold rush there. So, they ask permission to use sorority houses for their rush week. Every semester we have a fraternity using our house, and no one has ever said anything about it not being fair...even though the sorority houses are generally a lot nicer than the fraternity houses. People know the houses don't belong to the fraternities.

How could you ever enforce that rule. If there are only two sororities on campus and A has a great house and B has no house is A supposed to lend their house to B and what if A doesn't want to lend their house to B?

I think this more applies to campuses with big houses that are on campus. At Clarion, for example, the houses definitely aren't "equal" but they are all off campus and the school has nothing to do with it. It would follow that Panhel, being a recognized student org at the school, also has nothing to do with it. So there's no way they can say "hey Zetas, let Phi Sig use your house for rush." ;)

or rush is held in the student union....or some other place on campus that is neutral to all groups.

i didn't know about this rule. i know when my chapter was younger, the other 3 sororities had houses and we used a room in one of the dorms. then another year, they used the hillel house. of course, now our house is smaller than the others, but i am not sure how much that attributes to recruitment troubles.

It would follow that Panhel, being a recognized student org at the school, also has nothing to do with it.

HaHA!UF has too much to do with everything, especially PanHel and rush. Panhel definately had something to do with it. They had to OK whereever DZ was rushing out of. They had the final say with all sorority houses voting. Also, I think PanHel helped DZ arrange the details with ATO.

Well, the easiest way that it's enforced is that the situation you described hardly ever happens. There's an understanding (I'm not sure if it's an official rule or an unwritten one) that if a sorority is going to colonize at a campus, it's got to have equal resources to the sorority that's already there. And no sorority that's just coming to campus will try to "outdo" the other sorority by building a huge gorgeous house when the other sorority doesn't have one. So most of the time, the housing -- whether it's no housing, dorm suites, small houses, or giant mansions -- will be relatively equal for all sororities.

I've never heard of a sorority using a fraternity's house during formal recruitment. I know Florida Tech has a small Greek system, but until last year, we didn't have a house while Gamma Phi Beta had a chapter room and it didn't hurt our numbers at all. As far as I know (since I didn't go through Formal Recruitment) they had recruitment in their chapter room. I don't know if this would apply to a school with a larger Greek system, but having recruitment in a fraternity house just seem odd and a little to risky to me.

That's exactly what I'm saying - that since UF IS a school with big on campus houses, Panhel would have a lot more to say about their living/rushing arrangments. I was comparing a situation like that to my alma mater which is the exact opposite of UF. None of our houses are on campus or recognized by the school in any way.

Thanks for mentioning that, EM1843! :) If I recall correctly, 150 out of approximately 500 women were given bids.